A'undressing the Judge: He Could Have Everything – but Not Her Son

By JC Parry

Based on a true story
It is 2003. The front page of the Sun newspaper is filled with a picture of Sam, aged thirteen, his face pixelated to disguise his identity. Sam has won his case in the High Court. His extraordinary story is all over the newspapers; its on Sky News and on BBC News 24. They interview a city solicitor to try to give an explanation.
Fast rewind to 1993. Gregory Franks is a criminal law barrister whose work defending criminals influences his violent and abusive behavior. His wife, Joanne, has had enough and divorces him, taking her son Sam with her.
Joanne meets Chris, a loving and caring doctor, and they are blissfully happy. Joanne gives birth to Alex, a brother for Sam, and they all think they can live happily ever after, oblivious to what is lurking in the shadows of Gregory Franks mind.
Gregory wants revenge. This is just the moment that he has been waiting for. His plan is to take Joannes son Sam away from her, and he has friends in high places to help him.
The odds are stacked up against Joanne and Chris. They find that the judges will only listen to Gregory Franks, the barrister. Court recordings are carefully choreographed; the police are powerless, and CAFCASS is concealing the evidence.
But what nobody has reckoned on is Joanne and Chriss tenacity and determination not to give up on Sam. As a doctor, Chris cannot let Gregory Franks continue to abuse Sam, and Joannes instinct is to protect her son. How long will this corruption go on?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Oct 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477238547

JC Parry

JC Parry, with the support of her loving husband, spent ten years defending her son against a vengeful lawyer who gratuitously dragged her and her son through the courts. This true account is to encourage others not to give up and not to give in. JC Parry wanted to expose the bias and corruption that still goes on in the English courts, unchanged. Because details of cases involving a child are not allowed to be published, the prejudice and perjury continue. This true story shows what really goes on. J C Parry started her working life as a translator in French and Spanish. She then worked for McCann Erickson International Advertising, again using her languages. While doing some freelance work for McCanns, Joanne was asked by a London teaching hospital if she could help computerise two research programmes where she went on to co-authored scientific papers on hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria. She now managers her husband's medical practice whilst running her own pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical company. She also partners her husband in operating a light aviation company, where her languages again come into their own both in business and in the air. When not flying light aircraft or on the back of her husband's motorcycle, her preferred way of transport is cycling.

Book preview

A’undressing

the Judge

HE COULD HAVE EVERYTHING—

BUT NOT HER SON

JC PARRY

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© 2012 by JC Parry. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/16/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-3853-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-3854-7 (e)

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Chapter One

The Year 2003

Chapter Two

The Start

Chapter Three

Making The Break!

Chapter Four

A Chance Meeting

Chapter Five

The Final Straw

Chapter Six

A New Beginning

Chapter Seven

Payback Time

Chapter Eight

Rewind to 1993

Vengeance?

Chapter Nine

Achilles Heel?

Chapter Ten

Fast Forward to 2003

The Breakthrough!

Chapter Eleven

Back to Barcelona

Chapter Twelve

Today

Endnotes

Foreword

To my beloved husband for all his love and support

For my sons

With my love

The names, characters, places and incidents are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Preface

Joanne and Chris had flown to Barcelona to attend a medical conference, it had been three long days of meetings and speeches and now, at nine in the evening it was time to relax.

Joanne was pleased with the hotel; it appeared to match the description in the brochure and was an impressive building, large and modern, with white stonewalls in the Moorish style. There were four grand pillars at the entrance and the footmen in uniform stationed by the blue glass doors had been eager to help them with their bags.

Their hotel room was softly lit; the main focus was the dark carved mahogany bed with its rich coloured bedspread that made a pleasing contrast to the crisp white sheets and huge white pillows arranged against the bed-head.

Exhausted, Joanne and Chris snuggled up together in the generous bed and flicked through the list of films available to watch on the hotel TV. They decided to choose the film ‘North Country’, a story about a girl’s struggle to expose the truth.

Chris’ tall body was, as usual, a bit too long for the bed and Joanne could see his toes stuck out from under the sheets. She enjoyed the feel of his warm body next to her. She loved to touch him, he felt so strong and fit and she loved the clean warm smell of his skin. She watched the light from the TV flicker over his face and highlight his features. Chris, aware of her gaze, turned and kissed her affectionately, his fair hair swept back from his face, emphasising his beautiful grey eyes. Joanne thought how nice it was to have some time alone together, it made her feel romantic and she adjusted her long blond hair over her shoulders and snuggled up even closer.

It was quiet. The only sound came from the TV and Joanne drifted into thought. Maybe she should expose what really went on behind those great walls of so-called English Justice¹. Now that their ordeal was over, it was easy to push the memories to the back of her mind and just get on with life; even pretend it never happened. But watching the movie made Joanne think again. If she didn’t reveal what happened, it would mean that some Judges could continue to misinterpret the law for their own end and CAFCASS² cases such as theirs would be remain buried in the bowels of the Court archives.

Chapter One

The Year 2003

Joanne’s memories of 2003 came drifting back to her. It was four years ago in the summer when the story hit the headlines. Joanne was in the gym to do a workout. She wore her white T-shirt with its pink edging and shorts to match. She didn’t much like the gym because there were no windows to look outside; it seemed shut off from the world. The room was lit with bright fluorescent lights and the air conditioning made it feel cool, but not really fresh. It was pretty crowded that day with people on monotonous exercise machines, mindlessly wired to their iPods. Large TV screens surrounded the walls for entertainment and Joanne thought how she preferred to be outdoors in the fresh-air. If she were going to exercise she would rather be going somewhere, cycling, walking, running. She liked to feel her long hair, soft on her back, swish to and fro as she ran. But that summer day was incredibly hot and the only place to exercise was inside in the gym.

She remembered the TV screens had suddenly caught her attention. Instead of the endless stream of advertisements, she saw pictures of herself and Sam. Joanne stared in amazement. There they were, pictures of her, on Sky News; and their story flashed up on all the screens. It was like a dream, but yes, it was real. Their story was out there, for the entire world to see.

Later, back home, she opened the front door and was enthusiastically greeted by Springer. Not exactly the most original name for a Springer Spaniel, but it was Sam’s dog and that was what he wanted to call him. Lying on the doormat Joanne saw that neighbours had pushed newspaper cuttings through the letterbox. There were articles from The Times, The Guardian and The Telegraph; they too had got hold of the story.

Joanne walked into the living room and switched on the TV. She keyed in the remote control for BBC News 24 and stood there in anticipation. Yes, sure enough, there was the picture of the front page of The Sun.

The serious grey haired newsreader in his dark BBC suit held up the front page of the paper for viewers to see. He pointed to a picture of Joanne and Sam, their faces pixillated-out to disguise their identity and of course it was not their real names that were printed there.

What a cop-out! Thought Joanne, if a Court Order involved a child, it was illegal to identify the child in public. Judges could make any Court Order they wished and the public would never know about it, never be able to criticise how the case had been handled.

Joanne was fascinated at the way the BBC had presented this story. The newsreader turned to interview a solicitor who sat next to him. The pretty city lawyer must have been asked to come into the BBC studios at short notice to be made up, camera ready, to comment on the case. She was dressed in a smart grey suit with a pink silk scarf around her neck to give a bit of colour, her short dark hair swept back off her face. She seemed rather stressed and the interview became more like an interrogation.

"How is it that this child was allowed to suffer so much in the hands of the Courts and for so many years? Ten years of going through the Courts. In total, eighty Court cases. Ten years of this little boy’s life spent going through all those Court hearings."

The newsreader pulled the paper closer to be able to read directly from the page and he continued:

I quote Sam; who says here in his own words that he has lost his childhood, that someone ought to get it back for him and all he ever wanted to do was get on with his life.

The solicitor looked put on the spot, but the BBC newsreader persisted;

"Is this law a bad law? he demanded, Should it not be changed?"

There was a pause as the solicitor considered how best to answer his question. She had to be careful. She was a partner in a well-known law company and she represented the family division of that company. The other high profile cases that the company had handled were mostly for the stars and their notable divorce cases. She knew she must not upset the Judiciary and must not let down her company. Yet, as a woman, maybe she could see it from another point of view.

Finally, the solicitor responded,

"Its not a bad law. It was just badly interpreted!"

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Now that their story was in the newspapers, Joanne realised that she would have to be vigilant. She could be prosecuted for leaking the story to the papers. She turned off the TV and called her parents and warned them not to say anything to friends or neighbours. She told them that it was probably best not to keep any copies of the newspapers, or anything that could connect Joanne to the story.

Then Joanne looked at her watch and realised that it was time to go and collect Alex from school. Sam was old enough at thirteen to walk to and from school, but Alex was only eight and he still needed someone to pick him up. Joanne quickly put a lead on Springer, locked the door behind her and, with Springer straining at his collar, they started the short walk to Alex’s school. The afternoon sun was still warm on Joanne’s back and she began to feel lighter, even elated. Bit by bit, she began to appreciate that, after all this time, at last the case was over. She wondered if the headmistress had seen the newspapers.

At the gates of the school Joanne keyed in the security code and entered the narrow hallway that doubled as a cloakroom, with coats and bags hanging untidily on pegs. The cloakroom door then led into the large main assembly hall where the headmistress sat opposite the entrance. All the classrooms were off this main hall and it allowed the headmistress to keep an eye on both pupils and staff as they came and went. Joanne walked into the assembly hall and approached the headmistress’s desk. She looked up and greeted Joanne with a welcoming smile.

Congratulations! You made it into the headlines! It was on Sky news too, did you see it?

"Yes. Thank you. You know you’ve been such a tremendous support. I don’t know how we would have managed without your help with the school fees. I felt so guilty, Chris having spent all his earnings on solicitor’s fees and even though I mostly acted alone in Court, we needed solicitor’s advice of how to go about it. And, we wouldn’t have won Sam’s freedom without the QC. In the end it took a QC to get the Judge to listen!"

The headmistress looked kindly at Joanne,

I understood how you felt, that is why I wanted to help you both.

At that moment one of the classroom doors opened. It was Alex’s teacher. She had the children lined-up crocodile fashion ready to be collected and then the noise in the hall increased as other mothers entered the hall to take their charges home. Alex was released from his class line-up. He rushed straight up to Joanne and flung his arms around her. His teacher motioned to the other pupils to remain in line and she came over to speak to Joanne.

"Was that you, was that really you and Sam on the front page?" she asked excitedly.

The headmistress motioned her to keep her voice down and shook her head disapprovingly.

Discretion is paramount. We mustn’t talk about it!

The teacher nodded, she understood. She smiled and turned back to rejoin her pupils.

As Joanne walked home with Alex, his small hand in hers, he chatted away about his day, while Springer fussed about his legs with excitement. Alex always chatted so much there wasn’t really any need for her to speak, other than to make the occasional acknowledgment. Meanwhile Joanne wondered if the Judge had read those headlines. The Judge claimed he always read The Sun to see what everyday people thought. Hopefully someone will have left the paper around for him to see.

Joanne thought about all the people that had helped them, they were the real heroes: Alex’s headmistress who gave Alex two years at school free of charge; Sam’s headmaster who and was a great friend to Sam and gave him free extra lessons through that difficult time; the QC who stuck his neck out and risked being most unpopular with the Judge; the solicitors who gave their advice, often not charging their full rates.

It was such a relief that it was all over, but it was difficult to take it all in. They had lived under such pressure and for so many years; why had the case been allowed to drag on so?

Chapter Two

The Start

Joanne could not recall exactly how she had got herself into this mess; maybe she had just been naive and impressionable, young and gullible. When she first met Gregory Franks, he seemed so clever, so important with his barrister’s wig over his dark hair. He looked so grand as he strutted about the courtroom and addressed the jury. He wore pinstriped suits and conservative ties and would swagger down the corridors of the Courthouse, his black gown flowing out behind him.

Gregory had been proud of his new acquisition but, as soon as the wedding was over, everything changed. The first sign was on the first day of the honeymoon. Gregory had asked Joanne to go to the reception desk of the hotel where they were staying and get the menu to see what was for dinner that night. She had returned to the hotel room, the menu in her hand, but as she opened the door she heard Gregory on the telephone,

Yes, that’ll do. Anything really. I’m bored here. I’ll be in chambers tomorrow. Bye.

Joanne handed Gregory the menu. He didn’t even look at her as he said,

Got to do a case, so we go back tonight!

But we’ve only been here one night! I thought you said no one knew where we were?

Gregory didn’t answer. That was to be his way of dealing with Joanne. He asked questions. He didn’t answer questions.

Go and pay the bill, we need to settle it now and get off!

Joanne looked at him, puzzled. Gregory then shouted at her,

You’re the one with the money. Go and pay the bill! he demanded.

That was the way life was to be. If they went out to a restaurant, Gregory always seemed to forget his wallet, or walk out without paying, leaving Joanne to settle the bill.